Ohio Senate prez criticizes watershed district pay raises

COLUMBUS (AP) — Ohio’s Senate president has criticized an 18-county, central Ohio watershed district for handing out $400,000 in pay raises.

Senate President Bill Harris, an Ashland Republican, told the Muskingum Watershed Conservancy District in a letter this week that he was “extremely disappointed” in the raises when much of Ohio is suffering economically.

The letter followed an investigation by The Columbus Dispatch that found the district paid employees $400,000 more for the first half of this year. The district is in the first year of a 20-year, $210 million property assessment for dam and levee improvements.

District Director John Hoopingarner said the employees deserved the pay increases because of the heavier workload.

More than 500,000 parcels of land are in the district’s watershed.